Renowned Pakistani singer, fashion designer and evangelist Junaid Jamshed, who died on Wednesday in the Pakistani plane crash was initially scheduled to fly two days earlier. He along with his family and other celebrity friends, was on a 10-day visit to the mountain resort of Chirtal on a religious outreach to preach Islam, InUth learnt from reliable sources.
His group of friends also included former Pakistani cricketer Saeed Anwar. While Junaid’s friend and business partner, Suhail Hamid Khan, flew back as scheduled, the religious preacher along and Anwar decided to stay back.
Two days later, the singer and his family took the ill-fated flight but the cricketer decided to stay back for a few more days.
As fate had it, Jamshed’s PK661 aircraft smashed into the mountain near Havelian in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
At the peak of his career as a pop singer, Jamshed had distanced from glamour to get closer to god. It is believed that prominent scholar Maulana Tariq Jameel changed his life.
Junaid, however, continued to be in limelight for singing Islamic hymns, or the naats, and for preaching Islam. “He was a modern-minded daee (evangelist), who preached youth to carry forward religion with modern outlook. Within no time he became a favorite on TV and social media, where he has more than sixty-five lakh followers,” says Sheikh Feroz, a businessman, who knew Junaid for years.
In 2012, when Bollywood actor Aamir Khan was on Hajj pilgrimage with his mother, Jamshed had facilitated his meeting with Maulana Tariq Jameel. Khan and the Maulana subsequently became friends.
On December 7, Jamshed’s plane crashed just 50 km short of its destination, the international airport in Islamabad.
